Project Manager - Food Trends

M&S Food is changing, and fast! We are undergoing one of the biggest transformations in retailing today to build a bigger, better, fresher food business.

From Percy Pig to the freshest M&S Select Farms produce, we grow, source, and develop our own products to give our customers family-ready food that's unbeatable on flavour and innovation.

We need motivated people who are ready to bring their whole self to work and give it their all in a fast-paced team committed to being the best. After all, this is not just food… This is M&S Food.

We are seeking a dynamic Food Trends Specialist to join our team. Reporting to the Trends and Insights Manager, you will play a crucial role in the Food Trends team, supporting the delivery of key product campaigns. Your responsibilities will include translating the noise of food trends into clear, actionable opportunities for the business. You will support the trends team in delivering the creative vision, handling the end-to-end process from concept creation to product development. Additionally, you will project handle the key product campaigns pipeline, ensuring activities are completed on time and to the highest standard, while effectively handling key partners.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What’s in it for you:

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever-evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us. Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…

• After completing your probationary period, you’ll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

What you’ll do:

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Interpret and manipulate trends data from multiple sources (e.g. trends reports, restaurant menus, internal data etc).
• Translate trends, insights and recommendations into clear and concise opportunities for the categories in written presentations.
• Develop and communicate the critical paths for trend campaigns.
• Plan ahead and book in the best dates for vital showcases, engagement sessions and communicate their outcomes.
• Book key meetings, facilitate completion of decks and communications and publish actions from meetings.

Who you are:

Your skills and experience will include:

• Naturally passionate and knowledgeable about food.
• Up to speed with the latest food trends and social media.
• Motivated to deliver the highest quality, first-to-market innovation.
• Highly organised.
• Excellent attention to detail and focus on quality and accuracy of output.

Everyone’s welcome:

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together. If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.